UK → HUNGARY Moving to Hungary: how customs works, and the documents to expect

On most of our lanes there are five sizes to choose from. Hungary has four. This route does not offer the 20 m³, and the 30 m³ carries a 1,800 kg cap rather than the figure you will see on the Polish or Czech pages. In practice that changes one decision. A household that would have been a 20 m³ load elsewhere books the 30 m³ here. It pays the 30 m³ price, locked like every other. A household that is really a 15 m³ load, under 900 kg, books the 15 and takes its two-day window. If you are between the two, send us photos or a room list and we will say which, in writing, before you book anything. The crew enforces the weight caps rather than reading them as guidance, so the guide to what a van carries is worth ten minutes before you decide.

What that means for the delivery end is also worth knowing. A 30 m³ to Budapest is quoted at 3–5 days, because a full vehicle leaves when you load and stops only for the driver’s rest. A 5 or 10 m³ load shares its vehicle. Its range therefore opens on day 3 and can run to day 10 while the load is consolidated. You get the range when you book and a precise time the day before loading, in the thread, from the person you have been talking to.

Your furniture reaches the EU in France, so it clears there, and French customs applies the relief. The relief itself is the EU’s: twelve months of residence outside the EU, six months of use, arrival within twelve months, no alcohol, tobacco or trade goods. Sell or lend anything in the twelve months after clearance and the relief on it is lost, with duty to pay. Hungary’s customs authority is NAV, the National Tax and Customs Administration, and its English page on moving in from outside the EU is written for goods declared in Hungary. Yours are declared in France, so the declaration and the proofs that page lists do not fall to you on this lane.

A Hungarian address card is not in the pack on this page. The usual pack asks for the Hungarian lease or contract rather than a registration slip, with recent utility bills if you own and a host’s papers if you stay with someone. Your council’s bills and the paper that closes your UK home show the other end.

The declaration lists your goods from the inventory you finalise with us, not a second list for Hungary. Our customs partner lodges it in France, and the relief covers VAT as well as duty. Customs grant the relief, not us, and we say so before you book. The goods may come in several consignments within twelve months, so a second trip for the garage can still fall under the relief. A customs representative charges a fee of its own, which on this route is inside the price rather than on a separate invoice.

Since 2024 Hungary has run third-country residence under a new law, and most of the paperwork for anyone moving to Hungary from the UK now goes through one portal, Enter Hungary. You report your accommodation there to the aliens policing directorate for your district, and any change of accommodation within three days of it. The system returns an accommodation certificate, which you keep beside your lease. A residence permit for a stay longer than a visit comes from the same directorate, and some permit types take an online application. Do the accommodation report in your first days, so the certificate is in hand early; it stays with you and plays no part in the customs pack.

Which permit you need depends on why you are moving, so check yours with the immigration authority. Its factsheet on the employment permit, written for guest workers from a short list of countries that leaves out the UK, shows the usual shape. A visa-exempt national may apply inside Hungary, through Enter Hungary or in person at the regional directorate for their accommodation. Others apply at a Hungarian consulate before they travel. Within 15 days of the application the authority takes a photograph and fingerprints. The file carries proof of accommodation, a residential lease or an employer’s certificate that housing is provided, with proof of the job, of means, of health insurance and of a way home.

The permit runs for up to two years and may be extended by one more, never beyond three from first issue. The authority gives itself 70 days to decide.

Budapest charges for street parking in four zones, A to D, from the centre outwards. From 1 July 2026 the hourly rates are 800, 600, 400 and 300 forints, paid on working days; weekends and public holidays are free on the street. Some districts also keep bays for residents only, round the clock in the twelfth district, so a van cannot assume the kerb outside a flat is open to it. A space for the loading morning is therefore your arrangement with the district, made before you confirm the date with us. The van length we give you at booking is what the application needs.

London to Budapest is 17.4 recorded hours, which is why the ranges here open on day 3. The last border is the Austrian one. The A4 out of Vienna becomes the Hungarian M1 at Nickelsdorf and Hegyeshalom, the crossing that stayed open to freight even when others closed, and the M1 runs straight to Budapest. On Hungarian roads a vehicle over 3.5 tonnes pays HU-GO, a distance toll declared before the journey starts; it is the driver’s cost and sits nowhere in your price.

What can move a delivery is the weekend. Hungary bans vehicles over 7.5 tonnes from 22:00 on Saturday to 22:00 on Sunday all year, and from 15:00 on Saturday in July and August, and public holidays bring a closure of their own. In 2026 the national days fall on 15 March, 20 August with the Friday after it as a bridge day, and 23 October; Hungary then works some Saturdays to pay the bridges back. A collection window near 20 August or Whit Monday is the one to talk through with us first.

The quote for removals to Hungary is one locked figure for the transport and the customs clearance. For scale, the matrix last showed £1,799 for 10 m³ between London and Budapest; the figure for your move comes from your addresses alone. A slow M1, a weekend ban or a question from customs does not change it. What changes it is a bigger size, chosen by you, at that size’s locked price, as our fixed price removals page sets out, and on this lane that step is from 15 to 30 m³ because there is no 20.

The honest line is about relief. We instruct the pack and our partner lodges it, but French customs decides, and if it refuses, the duty and VAT are charged to you, outside the price. We would rather you knew that here than at the end. Cover is in pounds: £20,275 of goods-in-transit cover per event, the exclusions listed on the cover page. And the person who told you which size fits is the person in your thread until the van leaves Budapest. Read how we handled the moves that did not go to plan on our MuveOne reviews page.